Link: Albert Pujols to Phillies for Ryan Howard?

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So here goes the rumor mill that Cardinal fans, players, coaches, and executives will be dealing with until Albert Pujols is signed to a contract extension or ultimately set loose from St. Louis in some manner.

ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that a Phillies source told him the Phils have had internal discussions about making an offer to the Cards for Pujols, an offer including Ryan Howard.

Now, I doubt a guy like Olney would publish such a piece without someone “inside” the Phillies organization actually telling him such discussions had taken place. That being said, don’t you think that EVERY team in MLB has a discussion at some point about what player or group of players it would take for them to pry Pujols away from the Redbirds?

I just don’t see any real news here – but unfortunately, I don’t think it stops without a resolution beyond 2011.

Writing about the Cardinals and other loosely associated topics since 2008, I've grown tired of the April run-out only to disappoint Cardinal fans everywhere by mid-May. I do not believe in surrendering free outs.

Now if it was Halladay, Howard, and maybe another star (middle infielder anyone?) then the conversation could be at least brought up in the rumor section. Pujols will never wear another MLB uniform, at least if the St. Louis ownership doesn’t want to be run out of time.

Albert wants to get the deal done and doesn’t expect to kill the Cards in the bank account department. If nothing else this will be an interesting topic for Wednesday’s UCB Radio program…